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74-693: According to their hagiography , Sergius and Bacchus were military officers in the army of the Roman Emperor Galerius and were held high in his favor until they were exposed as secret Christians. They were then severely humiliated and punished, forced to wear both feminine and commoner garments, with Bacchus dying during torture to his feet, and Sergius eventually decapitated. Sergius and Bacchus were very popular throughout Late Antiquity for their fraternal and pious relationship, and churches in their honor were built in several cities, including Constantinople and Rome. The close friendship between

148-429: A nomen , and had adopted the victory title imperator ("commander") as a new praenomen . As a matter of course, Augustus's own adopted son and successor, Tiberius , followed his (step)father's example and bore the name "Caesar" following his adoption on 26 June 4 AD, restyling himself as "Tiberius Julius Caesar". Upon his own ascension to the throne, he styled himself as "Tiberius Caesar Augustus". The precedent

222-629: A blood lineage to the Byzantine Imperial family; his predecessor, Sultan Orhan had married a Byzantine princess, and Mehmed may have claimed descent from John Tzelepes Komnenos . Ottoman sultans were not the only rulers to claim such a title, as there was the Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, whose emperor, Frederick III , traced his titular lineage from Charlemagne who obtained the title of Roman Emperor when he

296-555: A church to the saints once he became emperor. The construction of this Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus , between 527 and 536 AD (only a short time before the erection of the Hagia Sophia between 532 and 537), was one of the first acts of the reign of Justinian I. Sergius was a very popular saint in Syria and Christian Arabia . The city of Resafa, which became a bishop's see, took the name Sergiopolis and preserved his relics in

370-587: A few high-ranking and distinguished officials, and only rarely awarded to foreigners. According to the Klētorologion of 899, the Byzantine caesar ' s insignia were a crown without a cross, and the ceremony of a caesar ' s creation (in this case dating to Constantine V ), is included in De Ceremoniis I.43. The title remained the highest in the imperial hierarchy until the introduction of

444-520: A fortified basilica . Resafa was improved by Emperor Justinian and became one of the greatest pilgrimage centers in the East. Many other churches were built dedicated in the name of Sergius, sometimes with Bacchus. A church dedicated to Santi Sergio e Bacco was built in Rome in the 9th century. Christian art represents the two saints as soldiers in military garb with branches of palm in their hands. Their feast

518-631: A matter of months, as in the case of Hostilian . The sole caesar to successfully obtain the rank of augustus and rule for some time in his own right was Gordian III , and even he was heavily controlled by his court. In 293, Diocletian established the Tetrarchy , a system of rule by two senior emperors and two junior colleagues. The two coequal senior emperors were styled identically to previous Emperors, as augustus (in plural, augusti ). The two junior colleagues were styled identically to previous Emperors-designate, as nobilissimus caesar . Likewise,

592-525: A month before he was assassinated in 44 BC. Julius Caesar's death did not lead to the restoration of the Republic, and instead led to the rise of the Second Triumvirate , which was made up of three generals, including Julius' adopted son Gaius Octavius . Following Roman naming conventions , Octavius adopted the name of his adoptive father, thus also becoming "Gaius Julius Caesar", though he

666-488: A romantic dimension, noting that the oldest text of their martyrology describes them as erastai , which can be translated as "lovers". He suggested that the two were even united in a rite known as adelphopoiesis or "brother-making", which he argued was a type of early Christian same-sex union or blessing, reinforcing his view of tolerant early Christian attitudes toward homosexuality . Boswell's methodology and conclusions were criticized by many historians. Regardless, in

740-574: A surname to a title used by the Roman emperors can be traced to AD 68, following the fall of the Julio-Claudian dynasty . When used on its own, the title denoted heirs apparent , who would later adopt the title Augustus on accession. The title remained an essential part of the style of the emperors, and became the word for " emperor " in some languages, such as German ( kaiser ) and Russian ( tsar ). The first known individual to bear

814-411: A veil bearing the wearer's name and pendants identical to those of the despotēs and the sebastokratōr . He wore a red tunic ( rouchon ) similar to the emperor's (without certain decorations), and his shoes and stockings were blue, as were the accouterments of his horse; these were all identical to those of the sebastokratōr , but without the embroidered eagles of the latter. Pseudo-Kodinos writes that

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888-496: Is accepted, even if nothing genuine about his life is known." He accepts that information in the passion is accurate. Italian scholar Pio Franchi de Cavalieri has put forth that The Passion of Sergius and Bacchus was based on an earlier lost passion of Juventinus and Maximinus , two saints martyred under Emperor Julian the Apostate in 363. He noted especially that the punishment of being paraded around in women's clothes reflected

962-440: Is no evidence for the cult of Sergius and Bacchus before 425, over a century after they are said to have died. There is no evidence for Sergius and Bacchus's schola gentilium having been used by Galerius or any other emperor before Constantine I , given that the persecution of Christians had begun in the army considerably before the 4th century. Christopher Walter considers Sergius analogous to Saint George , "whose historicity

1036-657: Is observed on 7 October, and a Mass is assigned to them in the " Sacramentarium " of Pope Gelasius . The nomads of the desert looked upon Sergius as their special patron saint . In the Armenian Church traditions, Sergius, or Sarkis, was venerated as a Christian general in the Roman army. He was martyred with his son, Martyros, for witnessing to their faith in Christ. The feast is preceded by three-day fasting where most abstain of food and water. The close friendship between

1110-600: The cognomen ( Vespasian , Titus , Domitian , Trajan , Hadrian ); a few placed it right after it ( Galba , Otho , Nerva ). The imperial formula was finally standardised during the reign of Antoninus Pius . Antoninus, born "Titus Aurelius Antoninus", became "Titus Aelius Caesar Antoninus" after his adoption but ruled as "Imperator Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius". The imperial formula thus became " Imperator Caesar [name] Augustus " for emperors. Heir-apparents added "Caesar" to their names, placing it after their cognomen . Caesars occasionally were given

1184-583: The sebastokratōr (a composite derived from sebastos and autokrator , the Greek equivalents of augustus and imperator ) by Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) and later of despotēs by Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–1180). The title remained in existence through the last centuries of the Empire. In the Palaiologan period , it was held by prominent nobles such as Alexios Strategopoulos , but from

1258-506: The Church of Scientology is commonly described as a heavily fictionalized hagiography. Caesar (title) Caesar ( Latin: [ˈkae̯.sar] English pl.   Caesars ; Latin pl.   Caesares ; in Greek: Καῖσαρ Kaîsar ) is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of the Roman dictator Julius Caesar . The change from being

1332-567: The Ge'ez language are known as gadl (Saint's Life). There are some 200 hagiographies about indigenous saints. They are among the most important Medieval Ethiopian written sources, and some have accurate historical information. They are written by the disciples of the saints. Some were written a long time after the death of a saint, but others were written not long after the saint's demise. Fragments from an Old Nubian hagiography of Saint Michael are extant. Jewish hagiographic writings are common in

1406-526: The Martyrology of Tallaght and the Félire Óengusso . Such hagiographical calendars were important in establishing lists of native Irish saints, in imitation of continental calendars. In the 10th century, a Byzantine monk Simeon Metaphrastes was the first one to change the genre of lives of the saints into something different, giving it a moralizing and panegyrical character. His catalog of lives of

1480-524: The Middle Ages , can incorporate a record of institutional and local history , and evidence of popular cults , customs, and traditions . However, when referring to modern, non-ecclesiastical works, the term hagiography is often used today as a pejorative reference to biographies and histories whose authors are perceived to be uncritical or excessively reverential toward their subject. Hagiography constituted an important literary genre in

1554-709: The Roman Catholic church , the Eastern Orthodox Church , the Oriental Orthodox churches , and the Church of the East . Other religious traditions such as Buddhism , Hinduism , Taoism , Islam , Sikhism and Jainism also create and maintain hagiographical texts (such as the Sikh Janamsakhis ) concerning saints, gurus and other individuals believed to be imbued with sacred power. Hagiographic works, especially those of

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1628-540: The Roman Empire as legends about Christian martyrs were recorded. The dates of their deaths formed the basis of martyrologies . In the 4th century, there were three main types of catalogs of lives of the saints: The earliest lives of saints focused on desert fathers who lived as ascetics from the 4th century onwards. The life of Anthony of Egypt is usually considered the first example of this new genre of Christian biography. In Western Europe , hagiography

1702-515: The cognomen of "Caesar" was Sextus Julius Caesar , who is likewise believed to be the common ancestor of all subsequent Julii Caesares . Sextus's great-grandson was the dictator Gaius Julius Caesar , who seized control of the Roman Republic following his war against the Senate . He appointed himself as dictator perpetuo ("dictator in perpetuity"), a title he held for only about

1776-404: The early Christian church , providing some informational history along with the more inspirational stories and legends . A hagiographic account of an individual saint could consist of a biography ( vita ), a description of the saint's deeds or miracles, an account of the saint's martyrdom ( passio ), or be a combination of these. The genre of lives of the saints first came into being in

1850-684: The feast day of Sergius and Bacchus has been celebrated on 7 October in the West. In the Tridentine calendar they shared the day with Pope Mark and the martyred pair Marcellus and Apuleius . In 1716, this day became the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary , and the commemoration of Sergius, Bacchus and the other saints was moved to 8 October. They were restored to 7 October in 1969. In the Byzantine Empire , they were venerated as protectors of

1924-503: The victory title "Germanicus" instead. Nevertheless, "Caesar" had become such an integral part of the imperial dignity that its place was immediately restored by Vespasian , who ended the civil war and established the Flavian dynasty in AD 69, ruling as "Imperator Caesar Vespasianus Augustus". The placement of the name "Caesar" varied among the early emperors. It usually came right before

1998-585: The 14th century, it was mostly awarded to rulers of the Balkans such as the princes of Vlachia , Serbia and Thessaly . In the late Byzantine hierarchy, as recorded in the mid-14th century Book of Offices of pseudo-Kodinos , the rank continued to come after the sebastokratōr . Pseudo-Kodinos further records that the caesar was equal in precedence to the panhypersebastos , another creation of Alexios I, but that Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos (r. 1259–1282) had raised his nephew Michael Tarchaneiotes to

2072-437: The 16th. Production remained dynamic and kept pace with scholarly developments in historical biographical writing until 1925, when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (d. 1938) placed an interdiction on Ṣūfī brotherhoods. As Turkey relaxed legal restrictions on Islamic practice in the 1950s and the 1980s, Ṣūfīs returned to publishing hagiography, a trend which continues in the 21st century. The pseudobiography of L. Ron Hubbard compiled by

2146-527: The Arab , Decius , Trebonianus Gallus , Gallienus and Carus . With the exception of Verus Maximus and Valerian II all of them were later either promoted to the rank of augustus within their father's lifetime (like Philip II ) or succeeded as augusti after their father's death ( Hostilian and Numerian ). The same title would also be used in the Gallic Empire , which operated autonomously from

2220-499: The Eastern or Byzantine Empire . Originally, as in the classical Roman Empire , it was used for the heir apparent, and was first among the "awarded" dignities. From the reign of Theodosius I , however, most emperors chose to solidify the succession of their intended heirs by raising them to co-emperors, i.e. augustus . Hence the title was more frequently awarded to second- and third-born sons, or to close and influential relatives of

2294-576: The Emperor: for example, Alexios Mosele who was the son-in-law of Theophilos (ruled 829–842), Bardas who was the uncle and chief minister of Michael III (r. 842–867), and Nikephoros II (r. 963–969) who awarded the title to his father, Bardas Phokas . An exceptional case was the conferment of the dignity and its insignia to the Bulgarian khan Tervel by Justinian II (r. 685–695, 705–711) who had helped him regain his throne in 705. The title

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2368-598: The Empire in 324, after defeating the Eastern emperor Licinius . The tetrarchic division of power was abandoned, although the divisions of the praetorian prefectures were maintained. The title caesar continued to be used, but now merely as a ceremorial honorific for young heirs. Constantine had four caesares at the time of his death: his sons Constantius II , Constantine II , Constans and his nephew Dalmatius , with his eldest son Crispus having been executed in mysterious circumstances earlier in his reign. He would be succeeded only by his three sons, with Dalmatius dying in

2442-586: The Roman imperium. His claim was that, by possession of the city, he was emperor, a new dynast by conquest , as had been done previously by the likes of Heraclius and Leo III . Contemporary scholar George of Trebizond wrote "the seat of the Roman Empire is Constantinople ... and he who is and remains Emperor of the Romans is also the Emperor of the whole world". Gennadius II , a staunch antagonist of

2516-656: The Romans", from Middle Persian kēsar ). Thus, following the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the victorious Ottoman sultan Mehmed II became the first of the rulers of the Ottoman Empire to assume the title (in Ottoman Turkish : قیصر روم Kayser-i Rûm ). After the Fall of Constantinople, having conquered the Byzantine Empire, Mehmed took the title Kayser-i Rûm , claiming succession to

2590-653: The West because of the Sack of Constantinople committed by the Western Catholics and theological controversies between the two Churches, had been enthroned the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople-New Rome with all the ceremonial elements and ethnarch (or milletbashi ) status by the Sultan himself in 1454. In turn, Gennadius II formally recognized Mehmed as successor to the throne. Mehmed also had

2664-634: The army. A large monastery church, the Little Hagia Sophia , was dedicated to them in Constantinople by Justinian I, probably in 527. According to legend, during the reign of Justin I , his nephew Justinian had been accused of plotting against the throne and was sentenced to death, which was reversed after Sergius and Bacchus appeared before Justin and vouched for Justinian's innocence. He was freed and restored to his title of Caesar . Justinian, in gratitude, vowed that he would dedicate

2738-793: The case of Talmudic and Kabbalistic writings and later in the Hasidic movement. Hagiography in Islam began in the Arabic language with biographical writing about the Prophet Muhammad in the 8th century CE, a tradition known as sīra . From about the 10th century CE, a genre generally known as manāqib also emerged, which comprised biographies of the imams ( madhāhib ) who founded different schools of Islamic thought ( madhhab ) about shariʿa , and of Ṣūfī saints . Over time, hagiography about Ṣūfīs and their miracles came to predominate in

2812-526: The fifth century. A shrine to Sergius was built in Resafa (renamed Sergiopolis around 425), but there is no certain evidence for his or Bacchus' cult much older than that. Their cult grew rapidly during the early fifth century, in accordance with the growth of the cult of martyrs, especially military martyrs, during the period. The Resafa shrine was constructed of mudbrick , evidently at the behest of bishop Alexander of Hierapolis . The Passion has been dated to

2886-522: The genre of manāqib . Likewise influenced by early Islamic research into hadiths and other biographical information about the Prophet, Persian scholars began writing Persian hagiography , again mainly of Sūfī saints, in the eleventh century CE. The Islamicisation of the Turkish regions led to the development of Turkish biographies of saints, beginning in the 13th century CE and gaining pace around

2960-616: The honorific princeps iuventutis ("First among the Youth") and, starting with the 3rd century, nobilissimus ("Most Noble"). The popularity of using the title caesar to designate heirs-apparent increased throughout the third century. Many of the soldier-emperors during the Crisis of the Third Century attempted to strengthen their legitimacy by naming their sons as heirs with the title of caesar , namely Maximinus Thrax , Philip

3034-402: The important hagiographical texts composed in medieval England were written in the vernacular dialect Anglo-Norman . With the introduction of Latin literature into England in the 7th and 8th centuries the genre of the life of the saint grew increasingly popular. When one contrasts it to the popular heroic poem, such as Beowulf , one finds that they share certain common features. In Beowulf ,

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3108-467: The junior colleagues retained the title caesar upon becoming full emperors. The caesares of this period are sometimes referred as "emperors", with the Tetrarchy being a "rule of four emperors", despite being clearly subordinate of the augusti and thus not actually sovereigns. The Tetrarchy collapsed as soon as Diocletian stepped down in 305, resulting in a lengthy civil war . Constantine reunited

3182-443: The lives of St. Patrick , St. Columba (Latin)/Colum Cille (Irish) and St. Brigit/Brigid —Ireland's three patron saints. The earliest extant Life was written by Cogitosus . Additionally, several Irish calendars relating to the feastdays of Christian saints (sometimes called martyrologies or feastologies ) contained abbreviated synopses of saint's lives, which were compiled from many different sources. Notable examples include

3256-531: The lives of Saints Meriasek and Kea , respectively. Other examples of hagiographies from England include: Ireland is notable in its rich hagiographical tradition, and for the large amount of material which was produced during the Middle Ages. Irish hagiographers wrote primarily in Latin while some of the later saint's lives were written in the hagiographer's native vernacular Irish . Of particular note are

3330-553: The mid-5th century on the grounds that it describes the construction of such a shrine as if it were a relatively recent occurrence. The original shrine was replaced with a sturdier stone structure in 518; this new site was patronized by important political figures including Roman emperor Justinian I , emperor Khosrow II of the Sasanian Empire , and al-Mundhir III ibn al-Harith , ruler of the Ghassanids . Traditionally,

3404-679: The mid-5th century. According to the text, Sergius and Bacchus were Roman citizens and high-ranking officers of the Roman army , but their conversion to Christianity was discovered when they attempted to avoid accompanying a Roman official into a pagan temple with the rest of his bodyguard. After they persisted in refusing to sacrifice to Jupiter in Galerius's presence, they were publicly humiliated by being chained, dressed in female attire and paraded around town. Galerius then sent them to Barbalissos in Mesopotamia to be tried by Antiochus,

3478-467: The military commander there and an old friend of Sergius. Antiochus could not convince them to give up their faith, however, and Bacchus was beaten to death. The next day, Bacchus's spirit appeared to Sergius and encouraged him to remain strong so they could be together forever. Over the next days, Sergius was also brutally tortured and finally executed at Resafa , where his death was marked by miraculous happenings. Veneration of Sergius and Bacchus dates to

3552-567: The nativity of Christ and ending with three texts to which no saints' days are attached. The text spans the entire year and describes the lives of many saints, both English and continental, and harks back to some of the earliest saints of the early church. There are two known instances where saint's lives were adapted into vernacular plays in Britain. These are the Cornish-language works Beunans Meriasek and Beunans Ke , about

3626-415: The nephew of Tiberius, and the uncle of Caligula (who was also called "Gaius Julius Caesar"). Claudius, in turn, adopted his stepson and grand-nephew Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, giving him the name "Caesar" in addition to his own nomen , "Claudius". His stepson thus became " Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus". The first emperor to assume both the position and name without any real claim was Galba , who took

3700-464: The only Romanesque doors in Europe to feature the life of a saint. The life of Saint Adalbert of Prague , who is buried in the cathedral, is shown in 18 scenes, probably based on a lost illuminated copy of one of his Lives. The Bollandist Society continues the study, academic assembly, appraisal and publication of materials relating to the lives of Christian saints (see Acta Sanctorum ). Many of

3774-486: The original life stories of their first saints, e.g. Boris and Gleb , Theodosius Pechersky etc. In the 16th century, Metropolitan Macarius expanded the list of the Russian saints and supervised the compiling process of their life stories. They would all be compiled in the so-called Velikiye chet'yi-minei catalog (Великие Четьи-Минеи, or Great Menaion Reader ), consisting of 12 volumes in accordance with each month of

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3848-708: The particular forms of another form of hat, the domed skaranikon , and of the mantle, the tamparion , for the caesar were not known. "Caesar" is the title officially used by the Sasanid Persians to refer to the Roman and Byzantine emperors. In the Middle East , the Persians and the Arabs continued to refer to the Roman and Byzantine emperors as "Caesar" (in Persian : قیصر روم Qaysar-i Rum , "Caesar of

3922-495: The rank of protovestiarios and decreed that to come after the caesar ; while under Andronikos II Palaiologos (r. 1282–1328) the megas domestikos was raised to the same eminence, when it was awarded to the future emperor John VI Kantakouzenos (r. 1347–1354). According to pseudo-Kodinos, the caesar ' s insignia under the Palaiologoi was a skiadion hat in red and gold, decorated with gold-wire embroideries, with

3996-428: The rest of the Roman Empire from 260 to 274, with the final Gallic emperor Tetricus I appointing his heir Tetricus II as caesar and his consular colleague. Despite the best efforts of these emperors, however, the granting of this title does not seem to have made succession in this chaotic period any more stable. Almost all caesares would be killed before, or alongside, their fathers, or, at best, outlive them for

4070-689: The rhetorical tools necessary to present their faith through the example of the saints' lives. Of all the English hagiographers no one was more prolific nor so aware of the importance of the genre as Abbot Ælfric of Eynsham . His work Lives of the Saints contains set of sermons on saints' days, formerly observed by the English Church. The text comprises two prefaces, one in Latin and one in Old English , and 39 lives beginning on 25 December with

4144-517: The saints became the standard for all of the Western and Eastern hagiographers, who would create relative biographies and images of the ideal saints by gradually departing from the real facts of their lives. Over the years, the genre of lives of the saints had absorbed a number of narrative plots and poetic images (often, of pre-Christian origin, such as dragon fighting etc.), mediaeval parables , short stories and anecdotes . The genre of lives of

4218-591: The saints was introduced in the Slavic world in the Bulgarian Empire in the late 9th and early 10th century, where the first original hagiographies were produced on Cyril and Methodius , Clement of Ohrid and Naum of Preslav . Eventually the Bulgarians brought this genre to Kievan Rus' together with writing and also in translations from the Greek language. In the 11th century, they began to compile

4292-681: The summer of 337 in similarly murky circumstances. Constantius II himself would nominate as caesares his cousins Constantius Gallus and Julian in succession in the 350s, although he first executed Gallus and then found himself at war with Julian before his own death. After Julian's revolt of 360, the title fell out of imperial fashion for some time, with emperors preferring simply to elevate their sons directly to augustus , starting with Gratian in 367. The title would be revived in 408 when Constantine III gave it to his son Constans II , and then in 424 when Theodosius II gave it to his nephew Valentinian III before successfully installing him upon

4366-432: The throne under the name "Servius Galba Caesar Augustus" following the death of Nero in AD 68. Galba helped solidify "Caesar" as the title of the designated heir by giving it to his own adopted heir, Piso Licinianus . His reign did not last long, however, and he was soon killed by Otho , who became "Marcus Otho Caesar Augustus". Otho was then defeated by Vitellius , who became "Aulus Vitellius Germanicus Augustus", adopting

4440-417: The titular character battles against Grendel and his mother , while the saint, such as Athanasius ' Anthony (one of the original sources for the hagiographic motif) or the character of Guthlac , battles against figures no less substantial in a spiritual sense. Both genres then focus on the hero-warrior figure, but with the distinction that the saint is of a spiritual sort. Imitation of the life of Christ

4514-441: The treatment of Christian soldiers by Julian. Hagiography A hagiography ( / ˌ h æ ɡ i ˈ ɒ ɡ r ə f i / ; from Ancient Greek ἅγιος , hagios  'holy' and -γραφία , -graphia  'writing') is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of

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4588-510: The two is strongly emphasized in their hagiographies and traditions, making them one of the most famous examples of paired Christian saints. The story of Sergius and Bacchus is told in the Greek text known as The Passion of Sergius and Bacchus . The story is ostensibly set during the reign of Roman emperor Galerius (305 to 311), though it contains a number of contradictions and anachronisms that make dating difficult. The work itself may date to

4662-467: The two is strongly emphasized in their hagiographies and traditions, making them one of the most famous examples of paired saints; the scholar John Boswell considers them to be the most influential set of such an archetype, more so than even Peter and Paul . In his Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe , Boswell further argues that Sergius and Bacchus' relationship can be understood as having

4736-724: The use of the Caesar title according to Treaty of Constantinople (1533) (though they would continue to use it and the Roman imperial title until the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806). The Russians, who defined Moscow as the Third Rome , were similarly sanctioned by the Ottomans, who ordered the Crimean Khanate to raid Russia on numerous occasions. The Ottomans stopped claiming political superiority over

4810-422: The wake of Boswell's work, Sergius and Bacchus have become popularly venerated in the gay Christian community. A 1994 icon of Sergius and Bacchus by the gay Franciscan iconographer Robert Lentz , first displayed at Chicago's Gay Pride Parade, has become a popular gay symbol. The Passion of Sergius and Bacchus has been dismissed as an unreliable historical source. It has been dated to mid-5th century and there

4884-400: The western throne as augustus in 425. Thereafter it would receive limited use in the Eastern Empire; for example, it was given to Leo II in 472 several months before his grandfather 's death. In the Western Empire, Palladius , the son of emperor Petronius Maximus , became the last person bearing the title caesar in 455. Caesar or Kaisar ( Καῖσαρ ) remained a senior court title in

4958-436: The world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might consist of a biography or vita (from Latin vita , life, which begins the title of most medieval biographies), a description of the saint's deeds or miracles, an account of the saint's martyrdom (called a passio ), or be a combination of these. Christian hagiographies focus on the lives, and notably the miracles , ascribed to men and women canonized by

5032-511: The year. They were revised and expanded by St. Dimitry of Rostov in 1684–1705. The Life of Alexander Nevsky was a particularly notable hagiographic work of the era. Today, the works in the genre of lives of the saints represent a valuable historical source and reflection of different social ideas, world outlook and aesthetic concepts of the past. The Oriental Orthodox Churches also have their own hagiographic traditions. For instance, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church hagiographies in

5106-507: Was awarded to the brother of Empress Maria of Alania , George II of Georgia in 1081. The office enjoyed extensive privileges, great prestige and power. When Alexios I Komnenos created the title of sebastokrator , kaisar became third in importance, and fourth after Manuel I Komnenos created the title of despot , which it remained until the end of the Empire. The feminine form was kaisarissa . It remained an office of great importance, usually awarded to imperial relations, as well as

5180-406: Was crowned by Pope Leo III in 800, although he was never recognized as such by the Byzantine Empire. In diplomatic writings between the Ottomans and Austrians, the Ottoman bureaucracy was angered by their use of the Caesar title when the Ottomans saw themself as the true successors of Rome . When war broke out and peace negotiations were done, the Austrians ( Holy Roman Empire ) agreed to give up

5254-517: Was often called "Octavianus" to avoid confusion. He styled himself simply as "Gaius Caesar" to emphasize his relationship with Julius Caesar. Eventually, distrust and jealousy between the triumvirs led to a lengthy civil war which ultimately ended with Octavius gaining control of the entire Roman world in 30 BC. In 27 BC, Octavius was given the honorific Augustus by the Senate, adopting the name of "Imperator Caesar Augustus". He had previously dropped all his names except for "Caesar", which he treated as

5328-499: Was one of the more important vehicles for the study of inspirational history during the Middle Ages . The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine compiled a great deal of medieval hagiographic material, with a strong emphasis on miracle tales. Lives were often written to promote the cult of local or national states, and in particular to develop pilgrimages to visit relics . The bronze Gniezno Doors of Gniezno Cathedral in Poland are

5402-408: Was then the benchmark against which saints were measured, and imitation of the lives of saints was the benchmark against which the general population measured itself. In Anglo-Saxon and medieval England, hagiography became a literary genre par excellence for the teaching of a largely illiterate audience. Hagiography provided priests and theologians with classical handbooks in a form that allowed them

5476-430: Was thus then set: the Emperor, styled as "Augustus", designated his successor by adopting him and giving him the name "Caesar". The fourth emperor, Claudius (in full, "Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus"), was the first to assume the name without having been adopted by the previous emperor. However, he was at least a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty , being the maternal great-nephew of Augustus on his mother 's side,

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